Little Binh and Phuoc Wagner hopped onto a school van recently on their way to kindergarten class for the first time. Their parents, Johanne and Michael, couldn’t get over the normalcy of the situation.
At this time last year there were some thoughts, however fleeting, that the twin girls from Kingston, Ont., might never make it to school. They had just been placed on a transplant waiting list for new livers because of the effects of Alagille syndrome, a rare genetic disorder that affects vital organs.
Without new livers, the girls would die.
Michael was willing to donate part of his liver, but he couldn’t give to both girls. And he wasn’t sure if he'd be a match for either child. So the family went public, their story capturing the world’s hearts.
It turns out Michael was a match, and he let doctors choose which daughter would get his liver. The other would have to wait.
Doctors chose Phuoc and performed surgery in February, giving her part of Michael’s liver. Then they waited. Two months later they found another donor. That one was anonymous.
Life was chaotic. Now it’s calmer—as calm as it can be for a family with nine children.
“It was quite normal, almost anti-climactic, but this is the way it’s going to be and we don’t have to get stressed out as much anymore,” Michael says.
Life has completely changed for the Wagners and their nine children. The twins, who are developmentally delayed because of the damage their failing livers inflicted upon their bodies, are reaching new milestones daily. Their skin glows. It used to have a yellow tinge, as did their eyes.
The feeding tubes have been removed from their bellies. Their medications, which numbered in the dozens, have been drastically reduced. They can talk. They can dress themselves. And they’ve finally moved out of the cribs in their parents’ bedroom into “big-girl beds” in their own room.
